Secondary legislation is made under the delegated law-making authority of Parliament (or under the Royal prerogative). It comes in many different forms and has many different names, including regulations, orders, notices, rules, bylaws, directions, and programmes.

Secondary legislation covers all aspects of New Zealand’s legal system. It includes matters such as food standards, transport rules, financial reporting standards, national policy standards for environmental matters, and eligibility for social housing and special social security assistance.

Secondary legislation that is drafted by the PCO is published in full on the NZL website. There are thousands of examples of secondary legislation, however, that are drafted and published by over 100 agencies. This agency-drafted secondary legislation is published either in the Gazette, on a variety of different websites or in newspapers, or is not readily available to the public. This makes it difficult to find and access all secondary legislation.

As a result there is currently no single place where people can see all of New Zealand's legislation. The project has been set up to address this problem.

Extending the scope of the NZL website to include secondary legislation drafted by agencies will enable people to access official versions of New Zealand’s legislation for free in one central location.

The increased availability of secondary legislation is expected to enhance the ability of individuals and businesses to comply with the law, and understand their rights and obligations. Over time this is expected to reduce the cost of regulatory compliance and the cost of doing business in New Zealand.

The Access to Secondary Legislation Project aims to provide a single, comprehensive, official, public source of New Zealand legislation, enabling New Zealanders to have ready and free access to the legislation that affects them.